November 5 is Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night and Fireworks Night), a British tradition to mark the failed attempt by the Catholic Guy Fawkes and his cronies to blow up the Houses of Parliament – and the Protestant King James I – back in 1605.

Nowadays we mark the night with bonfires and fireworks. You probably think you know all there is to know about the Gunpowder Plot. However, there’s more to it than you might remember… Here are some little known facts about Guy Fawkes Night:
1. Guy Fawkes wasn’t actually the ringleader of the plot to blow up the House of Lords – he was just one of a group of 13 men. The leader was one Robert Catesby. Fawkes was the one who had the job of lighting the fuse, and so it was him that was caught in parliament’s cellars with 36 barrels of gunpowder.
2. November 5 was initially known as Gunpowder Treason Day and bonfires were lit as a celebration that the King hadn’t been killed
3. The tradition of burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire didn’t start until around the 18th century when reports appeared of kids carrying stuffed figures around and begging for money with them.
4. Following his capture Guy Fawkes was sent to the Tower of London where he endured two days of torture before he finally confessed and gave up the names of his co-plotters.
5. Until the mid 19th century the day was often full of violence and towns such as Lewes, which still has a famous celebration every year on the 5th, were often the scenes of bitter fighting.
6. Guy Fawkes and his fellow plotters were sentenced to death by being hung, drawn and quartered on 31 January 1606. However, he avoided this grisly fate by jumping off the gallows and breaking his own neck.7. However they still chopped him up into quarters and sent his body off to the four corners of the kingdom as a warning to any other plotters.